Divorce lawyers in the UK have issued a new warning to those working in the City of London: Only marry someone as rich as you.
“Don’t get married,” says Jeremy Levison, a partner at Levison Meltzer Pigott. “If you must, make sure your other half is as rich as you are.”
The divorce laws in the UK are amendable to the claims of spouses, meaning many bankers and private equity and hedge fund managers may be forced to pay half of their bonuses to their divorced partners, even after the break-up.
And in the past year, UK court cases have proved the likelihood of this happening.
In Rossi v. Rossi – a case dealing with an antique dealer and his wife – classified bonuses earned “at least” 12 months after the separation can be declared marital assets.
In 2005, Allan Miller, a former hedge fund manager at New Star Asset Management, was ordered to pay 5 million to his wife Melissa Miller after a three year marriage that ended with no children.
“The state of our law at the moment is that it is the most generous jurisdiction for wives, and in some respects it has gone too far,” says Emma Hatley, a family law partner at Withers, which represented Melissa Miller.
When Kenneth McFarlane, a partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and who was represented by Levison, divorced his wife after 16 years he was ordered by the court to pay her 250,000 a year for life
Lawyers also say the rulings may hold for UK residents who don’t have citizenship, but work in the UK’s financial markets.